The main focus of my research is to explore better communication between patients and nurses by examining the views of life and death of "terminal cancer patients" who are aware that their death is imminent.

    I first became interested in this topic while working as a nurse at an acute care hospital. One terminal cancer patient said to me, "I think this is the last firework. Today is the anniversary of my mother's death." I was so struck by the words "last" and "anniversary of her death" that I could not reply to her. I regretted that if I had tried to listened to her more carefully, I might have been able to provide better nursing care that would have enabled her to live a life that was more like her own until the last moment of her life.

    Even when I read articles and books, all I read was "respect the views of life and death of each person." I then went on to graduate school and began this research.

　 The gut microbiota is considered "another organ" because it affects the overall health of the host. However, many unexplored aspects exist of the host and intestinal bacteria interactions. I aim to elucidate this interaction at the genetic level of intestinal bacteria.

    I became interested in intestinal bacteria when I was engaged in research on the mechanism of substance-mediated symbiosis between host and intestinal bacteria at the endowed chair of the Institute of Fermentation Research established at Ishikawa Prefectural University, which is what led me to devote myself to this research.